Dr. Lina Valery is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor whose area of focus is helping individuals and relationship partners achieve goals in their intimate and romantic relationships and healing from past trauma. Through her years of practice, Lina found that the underlying theme of what brought many to therapy was similar. Issues related to trust in self and others and avoidance in addressing these issues kept individuals and relationship partners in cycles of avoidance, distraction, anxiety, depression, and ultimately, living in deep loneliness. A loneliness that persisted even for those in committed relationships.
For many who came to therapy, it was not the discomfort of the emotions within that finally led them to seek help. Those emotions were continually pushed down to function daily in all the areas of life that required immediate attention, such as career, family, partner, sex, health, and finances. Ultimately, what finally led most to seek therapy was a critical event that forced them to face the emotions they’d been avoiding. More than 80% of the people Lina was continually working with struggled with trust in their current or past relationships. For many, the recent discovery of partner betrayal had been the catalyst. For others, a previous betrayal or unhealed past wound created a cyclical barrier to deep intimacy and connection.
Lina’s passion for nature therapy began in 2004 through her own healing work with trauma, betrayal, and loss. Running marathons and half marathons became a way to connect with breath and be in outdoor settings. Ultimately taking her out of her thinking mind and into her sensing body. After the 3-mile mark, ruminations, worries, thoughts, and fears were gone no matter who was around or what was going on. All that remained was a sense of belonging to and being part of. As the miles passed and mindfulness grew in the outdoor environments a greater desire for being in nature for prolonged periods of time continued. Eventually, this led to a move from the Sunny East coast of Florida to the Western mountains of North Carolina near the Appalachian Trail.
Seeing the continual stream of relationship partners struggling with feelings of shame, guilt, resentment, avoidance, intense anger, pain, lack of intimacy, and deep disconnect stemming from the effects of betrayal and trauma, in combination with her nature therapy-focused practice, led Lina to look for new ways to provide therapy clients with more than just a weekly 60-90 minute therapy session. Eventually, providing individuals and partners with a resource that could support them outside of the counseling session. Specifically, that could take advantage of nature therapy’s restorative and healing benefits. From this, Betrayal recovery focused on nature therapy was born.